Corinna´s Sky

Hang Gliding on WDR/SWR

2012-02-07T14:36:00.003+02:00

On Thursday 3pm you can watch "Planet Wissen" about hang gliding on German television channels WDR and SWR. You already find quite a lot of material of the 1 hour show about hang gliding here. They did not put huge amounts of make up into my face, I was still tanned because I had just arrived from Australia the day before I went up to Dortmund to the WDR studios ;) it was well worth coming back from Australia earlier than I had planned, because "Planet Wissen" touches many aspects of our sport and goes way more into detail than any other TV interview Ive done so far. The journalists did a good job researching the background of our flying. Once aired, this show will be repeatedly on around the clock on many different third channels in Germany - hopefully we can fascinate many new people into our beautiful sport of flying!

World ranking: 1.

2012-02-06T18:22:00.002+02:00

After a tough season of a long break from flying, I want to thank my parents and my close friends for having helped me through the months of training to get back into the air. The pre world championships in Forbes were the first competition after 7 months, and I really enjoyed the flying. And even better: With the good result, I am back in 1st position in this month´s Women´s World Ranking.
A big thanks to all my sponsors for their trust in me, and a special thanks to Vicki, Kim and Steve Moyes for having helped me to get that perfect RX 3 as a safe little glider to get back up to the top of the ladder!
It is snowing and freezing cold in Munich right now, but I am already dreaming of flying in Valle de Bravo in March...

Ispo Munich

2012-02-05T18:25:00.004+02:00

After I came back from work, I had one day left to visit the biggest sports trade fair in Europe, the Ispo in Munich. I met my friend Regina from DHV and together we looked at the latest collection of adidas eyewear, new Icebreaker designs, Garmin Gps, Lizard shoes, ... there are about 8 large exhibition halls filled with different products and all sports brands you can think of, not just winter sports. It is way too big for one day.
Still very cold over here, down to minus 20 Celsius at night, Im glad if I get over to Orlando for a day next week.

How to survive 19 Timezones in 5 days...

2012-01-29T20:53:00.004+02:00

... you just need the right sponsor! From Sydney (+10) through Frankfurt to Los Angeles (-9). Nice and sunny in California, the Santa Ana winds were quite impressive on our approach yesterday with a major wind shear at 1500m. Wish I could stay longer.

WDR Dortmund

2012-01-27T07:32:00.006+02:00

Yesterday I went to Dortmund for the TV show "Planet Wissen", which will be aired on Feb 9th at 15.00 on WDR, later that day on BR as well. One complete hour about hang gliding, lots of different stories, like the Aconcagua flight of Angelo d´Arrigo.
Dirk Soboll did a tandem flight with a presenter of the show, and they also interviewed Volkmar Kienöl who had tried to escape East Germany in a hang glider. His friend and him had set up the glider in Berlin on a high rise building close to the Berlin Wall. Take off was the problem, as they could not run properly to get off the rooftop. When the first pilot crashed, the second did not try but went to help his friend and wanted to try to go to Czechoslovakia, but they failed and were imprisoned for a year. Claus Gerhard wrote about this story in his book "Der begrenzte Himmel".
It was fun to talk a full hour about hang gliding - I hope a lot of people will enjoy this show. First time in German TV that they have such a detailed and well researched documentary about our sport!

Dreaming

2012-01-26T07:38:00.002+02:00

A lot of snow welcomed me home in Munich, but I didn´t have much time to think about it, as I went up north to Dortmund the next day for a TV show, then going to Frankfurt for work.
But I do remember those nice hot Forbes days full of flying lots of kilometers, and after that some fun flights in the dunes, at Newcastle and Stanwell. It was a great holiday with nearly 40 hours of air time and I want to thank all my friends for their help and the great time we shared! I hope our European spring is not too far away, and maybe I will see a few of my Aussie friends up here for the Euro season this year!

Stanwell is on!

2012-01-23T04:07:00.004+02:00

Stanwell was on and I went flying with Kathryn yesterday, swapping our RX3´s. My last flight for a while, because i go back to work and winter, so I made sure I had a bit of time in the air. It was blowing in quite strong, I measured up to a 38 km/h wind. Seeing how easy Kathryn took off made me confident too. She is quite experienced in the dune flying which helps a lot in strong wind conditions. But also our small, light glider and the easy ground handling of the new a-frame helped me a lot to feel safe on take off. In the air, apart from a whole lot of tandem gliders, there were maybe 4 or 5 other people flying.
I avoided some big rain showers and went up to Bulli to wait there in the sun until the showers had passed. It was a lot of fun to race up and down the ridges, it reminded me of my record tandem flight with Tomas Suchanek some years ago! So easy to fly fast and straight in those great little gliders, I can´t wait to bring the RX 3 over to test it in the Alpine conditions.
It was funny - when we landed, I thought Kathryns glider is better because it had less bar pressure with VG full on and was really easy to fly fast and be in control of the glider, even in strong wind conditions with our little weight. Kathryn thought my glider is nicer, because the handling in slow flight is easier and even faster to roll. Anyway, a great flight with friends, followed by a great Sunday night dinner at Molly´s place with the whole big Moyes family!

Back in Sydney

2012-01-20T01:10:00.007+02:00

After a nice drive from Forbes to Newcastle with Hadewych, I stayed with Nikola, she had just come back from the Corryong Cup and told me that there were also 6 women competing! Good for the sport to see so many women doing well over here in Australia.
I had a great introduction into the dune flying from my friends Tish, Conrad and Cris. It was a lot of fun to fly around in the single surface gliders and goof around in the dunes, hanging out in the evenings together with Ashanta and Fredie and some other "left over" pilots from Forbes. Holidays, finally!
Next day I had a tandem flight with Tony Barton who I always admired for his smooth top landings, so I asked him for a lesson on how to topland at Scenic. He in return asked me for some cross country tricks and let me fly the glider in the air, but we didnt cover too much ground on that day;) The top landing was a lot of fun and it was difficult not to touch the uprights but let Tony do all the work. I will post the video soon!
Yesterday I flew Conrads Moyes Malibu, taking off in Mereweather, going over to Dixon Park, floating around with Tish and Hadewych for a while, and then landing. A flight in wonderful smooth air, it was a lot of fun to fly that easy beginners glider. Later also Francoise Dieuzede had a go in it and really enjoyed boating around close to the beach.
Boris from Tasmania took me back to Sydney where we were invited to join Vickis post Forbes party - Noma was the chef and prepared great Sushi for us! We had a lot of fun and shared some fun stories.
Today I went to the Moyes factory with Vicky and met Francoise again, she will leave on Saturday. Maybe we go for a flight at Stanwell later. Her 5th place on one of the race days of Forbes was very impressive, she will definitely be one of the possible world champions if we have the next women´s worlds out in Forbes next January - Flip said it will be a team of 6 + 2 pilots, so there can be another title.
Also I just uploaded Jim Prahls video of my first test flight at Stanwell with the RX3 here.

Awards in Forbes

2012-01-17T12:27:00.002+02:00

Thanks to Ashanta for this picture of the awards late at night. I had a great trip to Newcastle with Hadewych on the next day and went to the dunes with the dune pros, Conrad, Tish and Cris, and about 10 other pilots. Good training to handle the single surface gliders in the sea breeze. It feels nice to see the ocean and the open horizon after all that time in Forbes!

169 km around 2 TP, goal Forbes

2012-01-14T09:57:00.002+02:00

Well today I made a few mistakes and landed after the first turnpoint - that area was very swampy and difficult to get back up and tackle the head wind. Yet had I been well rested and well trained, it should not have been a problem. Just a lack of concentration. With my knee injuries, I had not been able to train my endurance as hard as I normally do, and I clearly see where I can improve for next year. Lenz will see me back training hard at Sportschule Puch as soon as Im back in Germany. Well, I now that I can run again, I will start with my jogging training on Monday!
Rohan just made goal and won the competition, Attila should be 2nd, but for 3rd I dont know yet. I will drop big time down into the 40ies, but I think I will still win the women´s ranking, unless Francoise makes more than 980 points today ;) well she is a great pilot, but today it was a task for the big heavy guys with a big headwind leg. Funny, who again was task committee? Gerolf was in first, I have to ask him how much ballast he uses on a day like today. And when my leg is strong and absolutely stable again, I will ballast up to 8 kg more like I did in Texas without problems.
Well the pre worlds are over, 8 tasks, a lot of outback adventures, really very nice encounters with farmers and their families, some good goals - and about 35 hours of airtime! That little RX3 is an amazing new glider and I can´t wait to bring it over to Germany and have light pilots testfly it! It really makes a big change in the comp for us light weights! I had the full work out here in Forbes, and I can move my arms and shoulders without problem. Even Curt noticed how relaxed I hang and climb in the big gaggles. But the most important thing - the towing is soooooo easy with it! Today it was superrough again, with many dusties ripping through the tow field already, that I got a bit anxious. In the air, it was rough, but I managed to hang on all the way up and had a big smile in my face. Finally a glider that is controllable and has the performance too! Thanks Steve (and Kim) Moyes, thanks Gerolf for thinking of our small minority of light pilots! I guess on a few days out here I could show the potential of the glider, even though I was always going very very cautious, always really high and slow, just to make sure I can pick the perfect spot for a perfect landing to help my knee!

Forbes Day 7: 185km around 2 Tp

2012-01-14T00:39:00.002+02:00

High clouds were moving in and shading our area off again, in connection with a headwind it took us forever to get to the first turnpoint at Skulls. The run to Yeoval was faster, as we saw more sun, but again in the Yeoval valley it completely shaded and turned off the day. A lot of people landed just between Yeoval and the goal at Cumnock. I was about 10 km short, both my team mates were in the same area, we just had to pick up Kathryn. Stopping in Parkes for dinner, we got back after 11pm again, a long day with more than 5 hours of flying, so my report is a bit shorter today.
Last day today looks very promising, less wind and I hope just for once we get a closed task, coming back to Forbes!

Day 6: 201 km - Friday 13th already?

2012-01-12T21:46:00.006+02:00

Thanks to Jamie for the picture of me landing at goal two days ago - doesnt the RX3 look nice?
Just a brief report, as I still have to fix the zipper of my harness. It was another long task of 201km around one turnpoint called "Bumf" - as I learnt, the Canadians would have had the loudest laugh about this exact description of the area.
At briefing, we missed Vicki and Attila, instead we had some VIPs - Elvis and Priscilla visited us and brought us the task! Another 201 km day, flying in the blue. But first, some other problems had to be solved...
I had not completely set up yet when a dust devil ripped through our gliders. It pulled up the glider behind me and threw it down on mine. The other glider was fine, but one of my battens had been crushed, the carbon fibre splintered. I got nervous. Luckily, Scott Barrett, who had set up next to me and saw my shocked face, helped me. He went away to his car, put a piece of stainless stell into the batten, rapped a whole lot of tape around it, and it could be used again!
When I got ready to launch, the next misfit happened - the slider of my harness zipper broke in two! Now I got really nervous, as the starting procedure had already begun. A race against the time! And it was Scott again who came up with a solution. He pulled out a selection of differently sized zipper sliders, amongst them the right size for mine! Then he showed me how to take the bottom one off and how to put the new one in. And it worked until goal! Just now I need to stitch the bottom up to fix it.
When I was about to go, my radio had unlocked and I was on the wrong frequency... how much can go wrong on one day? With UHF channels, I had to find the frequency number again to get in touch with my team.
After all of the above, I was really glad when Jamie and Dave came over, calmed me down and stayed with me when I was in the launch line. It took me a while into the flight before I could shake off the pre launch stress. It felt like it was Friday the 13th already yesterday...
I got back really late, and today will be another big day, so I better start fixing my harness!
Attila won the day yesterday, with Curt Warren 2nd and Jonas Lobitz 3rd and Julia Kucherenko in smoking 4th place (she was first across the goal line!). Overall, it is Rohan ahead of Attila and Adam Stevens.

Moyes RX 3

2012-01-11T08:28:00.003+02:00

In the photo, Steve Moyes, Gerolf and I sit under a new Moyes glider called RX 3. It is a topless competition glider with a small surface and a smaller a-frame. Compared to my Litespeed 3,5 s that I have been flying so far, it truely is a toy! When I testflew it at Stanwell for the first time in quite bumpy air, I smiled, because the handling makes me very confident. The first glider I can steer with full VG on! And also - it does not yaw at all but flies peacefully straight line if you pull the bar in. Up to 115 km/h without ballast. But before I talk about it, I first wanted to fly a comparison with the other guys out here in Forbes. Now that I had 28 hours on the glider, I think I can give you some details about this new wing.
I had been a bit anxious about the rough towing conditions in the pre worlds out here in Forbes, dust devils and all, but it was piece of cake. The first day, I realized that I had more bar pressure on tow than on the flight at Stanwell. Right, I did not see that the VG rope had opened and I had been towing all the way up completely without VG!!! The only glider ever I could do that without my arms falling off afterwards.
Then of course the flying in thermals is even better than with my Litespeed. I feel the air, it is like my fingers turn into feathers, and I can finetune the wing into the strongest climb, quickly moving it around the corner. On the second day, the German pilots came up to me and said they were impressed that I was leading out and finding the lift for them - on some days it just works right! I like very responsive gliders that are easy and fast to roll. If I want to squeeze the last centimeters out of the thermal, I might highside the glider a little bit, but normally it sits effortless and stable in the turn.
Yesterday was a slow gaggle day and it was important to get high fast and stay on top of the other pilots. Even Gerolf could not outclimb me in our last thermal. Well, he outglided me into goal after that ;) The glide is good, but I can see that Jörg and the boys clearly pull away from me. Gerolf recommended more ballast, and so far I did not try more than 3 kg of water/ Red Bull as a ballast. I will try and see, now that Im very confident with the landings as well. Groundhandling gets a lot easier with the shorter base bar.
I am very impressed that don´t get tired of being in the air, but I can fly more than 5 hours every day, always looking forward to the next flight. The sail looks very much like a bird wing to me, a very clean and promising 3D cut.
I hope I will be able to bring one of these new gliders to Germany so all the light pilots can testfly it and enter a new dimension of high performance flying. I have the full carbon version here in Forbes, and also Francoise, Zhenya, Monique Pavy (FR), Virpi and Kathryn are on this glider. We all agree that towing has never been easier on a high performance wing before. Francoise came 5th in the overall ranking two days ago with her RX3, and I got 23rd yesterday after a long, difficult flight, quite promising results.
Have a look at Zhenya´s and Jamie´s blogs for their personal impressions, as they are flying the little beauty as well.

2012-01-11T06:22:00.004+02:00

Yesterday we had a high profile visitor wishing us good luck for the task - Bob Baier had participated in the Sailing Worlds at Lake McQuarie and come out to Forbes afterwards! His presence definitely motivated me to do my best and get to goal!

Forbes Day 6: Restday, too windy

2012-01-11T06:05:00.004+02:00

Today it is howling, gusts of 40 km/h and more on the ground, and in the air a dragonfly could barely move forwards this morning. Attila set a joke task to Manilla (380 km) and then cancelled the day for safety reasons. Nice cloud streets though!
I won a voucher for a massage today which I will use this afternoon. It is great to win a prize if you won a day!
Meanwhile the women of the comp met and discussed possibilities for the next women´s world title. Even though Im normally against mixing the men´s with the women´s worlds, this will be our only chance next year to have a title before 2014, since there were no bids for the women´s worlds. So it looks like we will have a team of 6 plus 2 additional women for Forbes next year. 17 flying women were attending this meeting, and all of them are very enthusiastic about flying their own competition, discussing a world cup as an example. But spending 4 weeks out here in Forbes does not sound very appealing to me ;)
For any possible organizers though, yes, there are plenty of women who are interested to fly a world cup if the costs are affordable - for example somewhere in Europe (most competitors could come with their cars and help out the other women from overseas).
The "Women with Wings" flyin in Bright was a great success too, and I certainly support any encouragement to get more women into our beautiful sport. Hopefully I can attend that meeting next time!
And now I will write a report about the new little glider Im flying in this comp. Also some more pictures of our wonderful goal yesterday!

Forbes Day 5: 217 km to Dunedoo

2012-01-10T23:36:00.002+02:00

Is it possible to fly 217 km in the shade? It is, if you stay with the gaggle (I learnt that on my last two silly tries to fly on my own which did not work too well), and if you have a bunch of really top pilots. It was amazing how many thermals we found even though the first 100 km were shaded by high level clouds!
Only after our turnpoint we had more sun and more fun. But it was getting late, thermals weakened, so we had to grovel and take what we could find. I flew with Primoz for most of my flight and was happy to have such a good pilot with me. When I got to goal, I was amazed to see so many pilots already there. 27 pilots made goal! Big smiles there, happy faces. And the landing field was the nicest and biggest Ive seen in a competition so far. It was a lot of fun to end the big flight in style with a smooth landing.
I also flew with Christa for a while, and she is racing, it was great to see how determined she is to fly fast and get going! She is at her absolute best and finished 2nd in the womens score yesterday, which moved her up into 2nd place overall! Since I was the only woman at goal, I went back to 1st in the women´s ranking.
Roland, Hans and Jörg also made it to goal, showing a really strong and consistent performance here in Forbes. Only Lukas was unlucky and landed early, which moved him down from 2nd to 13th overall, now Hans is the top ranked German on 7th place.
We got back after midnight, at 0.30 in the morning, but as the forecast is for a really strong wind today, we might have another rest day before flying 3 more days. With 28 hours of airtime here in Australia so far, I already flew more hours than during my whole European season last year.

Day 5: 144km to Wellington (Oz)

2012-01-09T23:23:00.003+02:00

On the rest day, I prepared some porcini risotto and had a lot of friends around - Tish, Cris, Conrad, Tali, Marty, Oli, Jörg, Trent and Andrew! It was a fun evening, and I woke up very rested the next day.
It was a 144km task with 1 TP in really strong wind which made the towing quite unpleasant. Gusts and dust devils ripped through the tow field. I was happy to have had a great pilot - Blano dropped me right into a good thermal so I could go up straight away.
I flew a lot with Jörg, and it was fun to team work with him. Just after the range I must have taken a wrong turn off and found myself on the ground too soon close to Yeoval. Many people made goal, Wolfi Siess won the day, and Francoise came in 5th, Christa in 11th! Christa was fastest German pilot yesterday, well done, great work!!! Overall, Rohan is still ahead of Lukas. Francoise is 100 points ahead of me know, Christa moved up to 3rd in the women´s ranking.
Today is looks slightly less windy, but we might have a similar task like yesterday, as it is still too much wind to punch the headwind.

Day 4: Rest Day

2012-01-08T14:10:00.003+02:00

Because of rain, storms and strong wind we had a rest day today. Time to look at other blogs. For more nice photos have a look at Ashanta´s nice pictures. The Germans are writing on the DHV homepage.
Also Jamie and my team mate Kathryn are writing about the Forbes comp. You will find some really fun interviews and films made by Dave May here! He can´t fly unfortunately but he is doing a great job as a reporter and master twitterer of the pre worlds!
Then of course Davis is keeping you up to date on his oz report about the actual results and gossip and all.
Looks like a big day tomorrow, so I better get some sleep.

Forbes Day 3: 185km around 2 TP, goal Bookah

2012-01-08T00:03:00.002+02:00

Stong northerly winds up to 30 km/h made us fly to the south nearly to Canberra. Attila set the task and seemed to be happy with it, as he won the day. Jonny got back in time from hospital after an oxygen and fluid treatment and came 2nd of the day.
But my real hero of yesterdays flight is Christa. She took the last start clock at 3pm and zoomed into goal with the 3rd best time of all participating German pilots, beating Jörg, Roland, Konrad and me into goal. Well done, great flight Christa!
It helped to stay with gaggles yesterday as all the other days, but for some reason I ended up on my own, very rarely seeing anybody on course. I met Jörg for about 20 km, and that was it. It was fun to just fly a lonely cross country, but of course it is much faster to stay with several people to find the next lift faster. Guess I will try that tomorrow, as today it looks like a rest day. Grey sky and the prediction for rain and storms.

Forbes Day 2: 133km around 3 TP

2012-01-06T12:55:00.004+02:00

After having ranked 48 yesterday, I had a bit more time to prepare my gear before launch with a very nice setup number of 34 - thankfully we are starting with an ordered launch out here which makes the whole comp really civilized. Turned out to be the perfect launch time to get up and ready in time for the 14.30 startwindow. I had a great tow behind a very talented tug pilot called Steve around 14.10 - he dropped me right into a nice thermal.
I was so happy about that little glider Moyes gave me to fly here that I just kept bouncing from thermal to thermal with a big smile today. More about the new glider in detail tomorrow, tonight Im too tired. Even though Blenky and I made it around all 3 turnpoints and into goal after 133 km, we were still only back at HQ around 21.00 to download the tracklogs. Our team mate Tony landed 2 km short of goal, and Kathryn landed around 20 km short - a great flight considering that she had broken her arm just recently! I think she ranked 3rd best woman of the day, after Carol and me.
Looks like around 34 pilots got to goal, and I was probably the only woman, with Carole being not far away from goal. Many big names were missed in goal today - Jonny was sick all day and couldnt quite get there, Attila and Primoz landed late, Curt didnt make it in. Today´s results will ruffle the complete rankings around. New day, new game.
Team Germany was quite successful, with Lukas as the fastest probably in 10th overall, also Roland, Jörg and Hans arrived in goal. Only Christa and Konrad were missing.
Scott Barrett won the day, followed by Swiss Nic. Overall Rohan is in the lead now with Scott in 2nd and Edoardo in 3rd. Lukas is 5th overall and top German pilot! I rank 28th now and better get ready soon, since the top 30 will start in reversed order, I will be off 3rd again today ;)

Forbes Day 1: 132km around 2 TP

2012-01-05T13:39:00.004+02:00

It got a bit hectic for me on launch as I was 3rd off in the launch order today. I like to go early, but we were not allowed to set up the gliders before the launch number lines were fixed, so it wasnt exactly relaxed. Well better than waiting around in the 38 Celsius hot field I guess.
The task took us south to Piney, then up to Eugowra and down to Gooloogong goal, 132km. It was a tough cross wind of 25km/h that I tried to fight, and after only 30 km I had to land, like many other pilots too. The first leg was the hardest one, as the second one would have been with a nice tailwind. At 5.50, the task was cancelled due to storm development on course. Italian Eduardo won the day, with Curt in 2nd and Jonny in 3rd. Carole was the top woman ranked 46th, I ended up 48th out of 95 competitors today. Lukas was the top ranking German pilot in 7th place today. But the winner only scored a bit more than 600 points, because many pilots landed before the 1st turnpoint already, so everything is open.
Tomorrow looks like a better day with less wind and hopefully no storms in our way. Results here.

Practice Day Forbes

2012-01-04T11:40:00.003+02:00

Today we had the initial briefing for the pre world championships in the Forbes recreation center before going out to the tow paddock. Forecast was for some showers and od later in the day, but it stayed dry, yet we saw more clouds than the days before. The training task was set around 3 turnpoints to the east and northeast, but not everybody got into the air before the wind picked up and clouds started looking like mammatus.
I already had decided not to fly but to film and take some photos instead, getting home early, having a healthy dinner at home and having a good rest for the next 12 days of flying long distances and having late retrieves.
On the picture you see Grace and Matt managing one of the tow lines and the scorer, Wes Hill.

100 km out and return

2012-01-03T04:31:00.005+02:00

Another hot day at Forbes. The launch cue was long and I waited more than one hour to get into the air. Then I was pleased to find my friends Tascha and Conrad in my vicinity. We climbed out together and started going cross country. It had been my dream for a long time to fly with my best friend Tish from New Zealand. She had stopped flying for a while after she had a child, but she certainly didnt forget how it works!
We were spreading out to find the next lift, working really well together. After about 50 km past a big lake, we turned around and headed back, as it was getting late. I made it back to the Forbes airfield and landed after nearly 5 hours in the air at around 8 at night.
Roland and Oli helped me pack up my glider and the German car took me over to Forbes and dropped me off at the place where Im staying.
At the moment we are all registering for the pre worlds. It is all very well organized, just for the gps download we have to wait a little.
It is really amazing to find this place so green. Yesterday we saw a lot of wet fields glistening in the sun, which is unusual for the area at

Towing at Forbes

2012-01-02T00:51:00.002+02:00

I don´t have an internet connection with my computer where I am staying in Forbes, so it is a little difficult to update my blog at the moment... I went for a nice little flight two days ago, and the tow was fun, and so was the flight. Very pleasant temperature at 2000m, much better than in the tow field without shade.
Today I will go out for another flight around the area, because tomorrow there won´t be any towing the organizer said. They want to have a training day on the 4th and start the comp on the 5th.
I will take some pictures today and post them later.

Testflight at Stanwell and out to Forbes

2011-12-31T01:31:00.003+02:00

Yesterday I testflew my glider at Stanwell - sweet little glider, very easy handling, going fast and straight. Promising great fun flights!
Len Paton and I had picked up Jim Prahl in the airport and after the little stop in Stanwell, we headed off to Forbes. On the way we stopped for some lunch and found this huge Merino sheep - I had to take a picture in my Icebreaker gear, as it is made from pure merino wool. Very nice to wear even in hot weather. but yesterday it was quite cool. Even out here in Forbes it is very pleasant and green.
Now Im waiting for Len to come out to Forbes airfield with my glider and have a little test tow. All blue at the moment, Jonny and Curt have their xc clinic group sitting next to me and talk about their flight experiences yesterday. Interesting to listen to, these guys know how to make it fun and how to teach people and get them out on long distances!
Every minute people are arriving here. Ive already met Hadewych and Carol, the Italian team, a lot of Australians... it is nice to be out here and have two weeks of quite promising weather ahead of us!

Bronte morning, Sydney, Timezone GMT +11

2011-12-27T22:55:00.001+02:00

Great big waves and a southeaster today at Bronte, looks like a nice day this morning.

Bremen-Paris-Abu Dhabi-Sydney

2011-12-27T13:07:00.003+02:00

Im the second of Team Timezone to arrive in Sydney, heavily jetlagged Im up at 3.45am to write for you! Primoz is already here, Joerg will come tomorrow I guess (thanks to him for this great little Timezone logo - it´s actually GMT + 11 here, but aren´t we all in jetlag?).
This morning I started superearly flying out from Bremen to Paris, got on to Abu Dhabi and just made the flight to Sydney. Only 28 hours later Im in Australia where the sky just looked like in Bremen. Grey?! At least about 10 degrees warmer. And Steve said Stanwell will be on the next 3 days, so I look forward to some coastal flying before going out to Forbes! Time for a rest now.

Steve Moyes Interview

2011-12-25T16:09:00.003+02:00

This is a great interview with one of the best hang glider pilots ever, Steve Moyes. He has not only built all the gliders I have ever won a World, European and German Champion title with, but Steve has also won a World Champion title and several national titles. I had the honour to fly quite a few times with Steve and I have always been in absolute awe of his technique - he barely seems to put any effort into steering the gliders, because he anticipates!
Now at the pre worlds in Forbes in January Steve is offering a special program for new and upcoming pilots to improve their flying and competition skills. Gerolf, Attila and Jonny Durand will also be part of this program, and also I will give as much input as I can from my competition experience. Guess everybody would like to be a Moyes pilot now to get a special tuition from some top guys in different aspects of hang gliding!

In Bremen for Christmas, in South Africa with my mind

2011-12-23T17:15:00.002+02:00

Visiting a lot of African countries regularly with my job, I was curious how the political situation in South Africa is progressing. I admire those grand, wise men Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu just as much as the Dalai Lama. They stopped Apartheid and racism in a peaceful way, a revolution without a war (nevertheless a lot of good people lost their lives on the way there).
Certainly the ecomony of South Africa has grown immensely since I was there last about 8 years ago, the country seems to be on a good way to peace, freedom and more safety - I was walking through the city of Cape Town, sharing bus rides with people of every colour and origin, not feeling threatened but always meeting great curiosity: "Where are you from? What have you seen of our country? How do you like it?" While I tried to learn from the Xhosa-people how to properly pronounce the clicking sounds of their beautiful language.
But some recent developments within the ANC seem to be extreme and racist the other way around, much to the concern of the former party leaders. I hope that politics and the country don´t stumble into the opposite, the Zimbabwen way.
It was great to absorb a lot of sun at the southern cape before arriving in my home in Bremen- just grey all day and drizzle, dark like dusk. Guess we are too close to the polar circle for the day to lighten up during winter ;) don´t know how my Scandinavian friends survive the cold season. I will run away to Australia soon...

Cape Point, UTC +2

2011-12-19T15:27:00.003+02:00

While I was in South Africa, at Cape Point I already found a hint to my next big adventure - Australia, not quite in swimming distance! Before that, I will go to Berlin, Munich and Bremen and then head south again. Sydney! Pre World Championships in Forbes, 5 hours west of Sydney, 100 pilots entered already, Vicki and the Moyes team are doing a great job organizing it all!
I will meet a lot of friends there again, plenty of German pilots, but also my favourite Kiwis are going, with Tascha flying again after some time. It is always great to be in the air with your best mates!

Cape Town

2011-12-18T11:15:00.001+02:00

WDR 5 radio, monday 11.05 am

2011-12-14T16:13:00.002+02:00

Yesterday I went to an interview for the radio in Cologne, WDR 5, which will be aired next monday at 11.05am, about half an hour about hang gliding. Im on my way to work, so more pictures and infos soon...
Also, I am in a book about outdoor legends now. It was very flattering to find myself between Arved Fuchs and Germany´s first astronaut Sigmund Jähn, I don´t live quite up to their legends I feel, but it is an honour for me to be mentioned and portrayed as well!

Jeddah, UTC +3

2011-12-09T14:00:00.003+02:00

After having softened up in Australia, I was looking for warm work destinations to fly to after having come back to cold Germany. Seems like it worked out - while it is pretty chilly in Sydney right now, I have been baking in Rio and now in Jeddah. Even more so under the black abbaya coat that the women have to wear... and no matter if I wear abbaya and scarf, abbaya and hat or abbaya and just my hair - the cars passing me will still honk. Just why? They can´t just be all Indians who do that for the mere joy of honking?

Now in the afternoon, there are lots of little picknicks happening at the sea - if you have a closer look at the photo, you can see some women in black gathering. Now there is a group on every one of those little bends. Just it is not quite as cozy as on Australian beaches, and no barbecues are installed. And well, definitely no chardonnay going on here ;) Nobody in or on the water, even though the breeze seems perfect for kite surfing or wind surfing, with whitecaps all over. But then, how would I do that in an abbaya?

Also, Im not allowed to do my workout in the gym. I asked if there is a separate time or room for women, but no mercy. At least I could borrow a mat to take to my room. Guess I cant just through my sling trainer across a palm tree and train in the garden. But tomorrow, after our shuttle to Asmara and back, I will go to the beach club - I heard that women are allowed into the gym there. I will try. And hopefully find some colourful fish in the water.

Sportschule Puch

2011-12-05T19:47:00.004+02:00

Back in Munich, I went to see Lenz Westner of Sportschule Puch straight away to receive a new training schedule - I still need to do a lot of workout to be fit for the pre world championships in Forbes in January! Lenz is much more than just a trainer or a physio, he has an amazing grip on how to straighten and train up a body after having had an injury.
I had just started with my training when I ran into good friends from our Red Bull family - Marco Smolla and Bene Mayr, also training because it hasn´t quite started snowing yet, so the free skier and the snowboarder are still "gounded" like me ;) great training partners, but much stonger than me. As you see on the photo.

Cristo Redentor

2011-12-02T08:33:00.003+02:00

Link to Pepe´s documentary!

2011-12-01T10:26:00.005+02:00

Steve Blenkinsop sent me the link to the great documentary about Pepe Lopez - a lot is in English, some of it in Portuguese, and I consider it a "must see". It is dealing with a sensitive subject of our sport very well, the editors did a great job not to blame the risks or danger of hang gliding, but to show Pepe´s passion for flying and life. It also protrayed our group of pilots in the sport very well, showing how close we all are and that we are ready to help each other when it comes to extremes.
Blenky said the docu won a sports journalism award last week. Really deserved it! The link to SporTV is here. If you click on the little winndow at the left bottom, you should be able to watch the 50 minute docu.

The legend of Pepe

2011-12-01T00:03:00.003+02:00

Despite the wind not looking good at all for Sao Conrado, I had to go there to meet some old friends. Betinho took me up to Pedra Bonita launch, and I think this is the only ramp where tailwind take offs can work. Ive done that myself, but it is always strange. The tandems dropped down significantly after leaving the ramp ;)
In the evening back in the hotel, I started zapping through TV channels, and believe it or not, there was a documentary on SportTV about the story of Pepe Lopez who had died in 1991 during the world championships in Japan. I stopped on the channel because I heard Blenky talking. How strange, I am in Rio and see some of my friends on TV. The accident happened before I even started flying comps, and unfortunately I had never met Pepe. I also had no idea that Blenky landed in the trees close by Pepe trying to save Pepe. Also Pedrao, Phil and Nader were interviewed, as well as several other well known faces of the Carioca hang gliding scene. The program went on for about an hour, with a lot of historical film footage. I have to ask Blenky if he got a copy of it, it was really great to watch!
In Rio, Pepe Lopez is nearly as great a legend as Senna, with streets and places named after him. He was a surfing and hang gliding world champion and was also a really successful musician. Good to see that his legend is still alive and people remember.

Music and passion will always be fashion...

2011-11-30T11:40:00.003+02:00

... at the Copacabana! I love my job. After a tough 15 hour shift, we finally arrived in our new crew hotel at the Copacabana. A déja-vu! I have stayed here before a few years ago. When we had the Red Bull Giants of Rio competition, my favourite comp ever. A relay of a swimmer, a mountain biker, a hang glider pilot and a runner. Right through the whole city of Rio. Breakfast on the top floor, ocean view, with 150 of the best triathletes of the world!
Jamie, Nina and I barely noticed the ocean views though ;) It was incredible when the whole city of Rio shut down for one Sunday to allow the athletes to cruise through the city. Numerous favelas had been bribed with skate parks and other goodies to tolerate us going through their territory. And only for that one day, we were allowed to fly from the Pedra Bonita ramp to Ipanema, spot landing in the middle of what seemed a million spectators, handing over to our runner.
On the pics you see the view from my room. Quite high up. The former Meridien, now Windsor is the tallest building at Copacabana, much to the delight of my friend Chris Mueller many years ago. He smirked and told me about his "new toy"... and asked me to help him find a way to the rooftop. Then he made sure that the police guards were asleep, and he base jumped in the middle of the night, every night, landing on the beach. Life can be hard ;)
I hope I will meet a few of my Rio hang gliding friends here or at Sao Conrado while Im in the city.

The Winners... XC hang gliding 2011

2011-11-27T13:13:00.005+02:00

Markus Ebenfeld won the German XC champion title, but also the worldwide XC Cup! Next to him on second, Peter Waldmann, a genius on XC flying - he had a severe accident years ago and suffered severe walking disabilities since, yet he flies and lands on big wheels and is just an amazing pilot!
Jochen Zeyer won the rigid XC, followed by Frank Schmid from my club, DFCA, and Dieter Müglich from Wasserkuppe.
I won the Women´s German XC title, even after only having flown half the season. I was presented with a very special trophy that means a lot to me - Claus Gerhard, a great XC pilot and book author, found an "Emily" in an antique store in Berlin, thought of me and prepared it as a trophy for today. I was left speechless - Claus is a great friend. He has managed to fly from Berlin to Bremen, my home city, on his rigid wing before, about 400 km, which is just an amazing performance in the wet northern German flatlands!
Our club, DFCA, became 2nd in the German Bundesliga, so we dedicated the title to our friend and fellow pilot Walter Rackl who died this year aged only 68.
In came Alex Ploner, just in time for his presentation after the lunch break.

DHV Day of Sports

2011-11-27T11:49:00.004+02:00

Today we have the leisure part of the DHV meeting: interesting lectures, at the moment weatherman Volker Schwanitz is explaining turbulence due to different weather patterns in the alps and flatlands.
Later Daniel Tyrkas, new Adidas Air team member and vice German Champion this year in the open scoring of pg (Uli Wiesmeier won!) will lecture about xc flying, also Alex Ploner will give us a presentation later.
Lots of people are here today, many of them my club mates or other xc pilots (Markus Ebenfeld won the hangie XC contest, I also saw Günther Porath, another great xc pilot, Roland Wöhrle is here, Alex Köhler, Frank Schmid, Jörg Bajewski just left... like a pre xmas meeting), hang and paragliding.
The special treat is that Ecki Schröter is here with his family, our highly valued team doctor who always looks after everybody in our sport, making sure we get the best possible treatment! A true idealist, as is his wife Ingrid who puts up with him taking time off to come to Worlds or Europeans with us! Thanks heaps!
Around midday, we will have the awards of the German XC Championships.

Annual DHV meeting

2011-11-26T20:06:00.004+02:00

No spectacular news from the DHV meeting, just that Juergen Ruedinger stopped his work in the board as a technical director, and Dieter Muenchmeyer was voted into it instead, while Christof Kratzner, when proposed, turned it down.
Other than that, all as before.

More interesting that Sebastian Vettel won the qualifying in Sao Paulo today and got his 15th pole position in this season, setting a new all time record. Good work, Seb, I hope you will win tomorrow at Interlagos, finish the circuit in style!

Bamberg breakfast

2011-11-26T11:45:00.004+02:00

We arrived in Bamberg late last night, and this morning we started with a highlight for breakfast - the last mango of the ones that I brought over from Australia! I wanted to share it with my parents and best friends, and we all really enjoyed that perfect flavour that you just can´t buy in Germany. So good to see them again, been a while.
The annual meeting of the DHV, the German Hang and Paragliding association, will start today at 1pm. I have been elected as a delegate and it is always interesting to see if people come up with new concepts and ideas for our sport. If anything of relevance for the competitions comes up, I will post it later and also send some pics. Tomorrow we will have the awards of the German XC championships, I won the women´s title even though I only flew half the season ;) It is quite grey and cold over here, the perfect day to sit in a neverending meeting. As usual, I brought some Red Bull not to fall asleep... the best way to get over a heavy jetlag!

Snow...

2011-11-25T16:15:00.004+02:00

What a difference... when I arrived back in Munich, we had dark, thick fog all day, and sometimes it was snowing. The cheeky little guy in the beautiful rainforest garden would have had a loud laugh with his mates about the cold drizzle ;) Kookaburras are my favourite birds - they love to eat all sorts of spiders, even crunchy funnel webs! Legends.

All my bags are packed...

2011-11-23T04:34:00.001+02:00

... and Im about to leave the Moyes factory. Vicki will take me to Sydney airport, then Im off to work again :(

Swimming at Bronte

2011-11-23T00:23:00.003+02:00

This is how it looks today outside the Moyes factory. Dark and cold and heaps of rain. Just like yesterday. It was my last morning though, so I went for a special treat - I got up at 6am and went over to Bronte to join Bill for his every morning swim in the rock pool. Water was about 17 C, it was raining, but it was beautiful. He is such a legend, and I feel privileged to be able to spend some time with him. And I guess coming from northern Germany, Im used to swimming in cold water anyway ;) just loved it!
Now Im waiting for my sail to be finished, it will fit into my suitcase, and then I will be off to the airport, looking at a 14 hour flight to Abu Dhabe, then on to Munich. Im sad I have to leave my friends again, because it feels so much like family and home down here, but Im looking forward to some exciting work trips and spending time with my parents at the annual DHV meeting this weekend close to Nuremberg where the famous Christmas markets are about to start!

Rain rain rain

2011-11-21T23:37:00.004+02:00

Today Im in the Moyes factory in Botany and already met Noma this morning - he had come back from Gulgong, as it didn´t look too promising weatherwise. Rain in Sydney since last night, also rain out in Gulgong for a while.
It is always exciting to be at the factory, my sail is being made at the moment, I love the crisp of new dacron and mylar. It´s always great to see how a pair of new wings come to life!

Hats!

2011-11-21T12:01:00.005+02:00

Whereever I go flying, whether hang gliding or on duty with Lufthansa, I usually have this hat in my luggage. With my fair skin I am quite sensitive to the sun and we usually end up flying in summer conditions in sunny weather, so I was very pleased to have found the perfect travel hat - light weight and indestructable. I put it into the sail before take off and sometimes forgot to take it out before I packed the glider - it stayed in the glider for days, yet it came out perfect.
Since my hat has come of age and seen many countries and comps over the past six years, I decided to find a new one, as I can only buy them in Sydney. And with the pre worlds in Forbes coming up in January, finding the perfect equipment is part of my preparation for the comp.
I had always bought these hats at Paddington market, but as that market is only on on Saturdays, I went to the studio of Maya Neumann in Darlinghurst today.
With the natural dye, every hat comes out unique. And the secret is the material - water hyacinth, you can just spray the hat with water and change the shape to anything you like! A bit like felt hats in Bavaria, just not as thick and heavy, but very light and delicate, made for summer and hot places. I chose my favourite colour and Maya finished my new "Squash hat" off. She also loves to travel the world and we exchanged some good "on the road stories".

A Koala and a Moyes family dinner

2011-11-21T11:37:00.006+02:00

Sometimes you get rewarded even if the wind direction seems wrong and you decide not to launch. The Koala in the tree was sitting just next to take off - the first Koala I ever saw! Then just a few steps away I found the skin of a large brown snake, one of the most poisonous guys in the world. Then there are cockattoos, lazy lizards (who do they remind me of???) and wild turkeys everywhere. I love this amazing country!
And I love the amazing hospitality of the Moyes family - it is always a special treat to join Molly´s Sunday family dinner at Bronte Beach - and they really embrace me as part of the family. So good to see Vicki and Greg, Molly, Bill, Jen and Steve, Gerolf and about a dozen kids I cant quite place, as well as pilots who just drop in. Have you felt lost and in jet lag and foreign in this huge city of Sydney, at Molly´s Sunday dinner you arrive in a safe and very welcoming haven. It has become an institution over the years and I feel privileged to participate.

NBN news and Volle Kanne!

2011-11-19T21:49:00.003+02:00

You can find the NBN news story here, I was very flattered when I watched it - nice images and really positive for our sport, the guys did a great job!
This monday morning on Volle Kanne in ZDF, you can watch the full story about meeting Benjamin on our trip to Ghana. Have a look at the information about it here and pictures here.

NBN TV news 6pm tonight!

2011-11-16T23:38:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I went up to Newcastle for an interview with NBN TV. Weatherman Gavin Morris, a paraglider pilot, organized that for me - and I think it is important to present our sport in the most positive way as possible, specially in the places where we fly a lot, so non-pilots understand a bit more and might even try a tandem or start a course!
It was raining heaps and we had to shift the place of the interview away from launch to a house. No flying possible, but luckily I had lots of film footage of Tegelberg on my computer.
Of course my story is tightly entwined with Australia, as I have always won the world champion title on a Moyes hang glider and had been living in Sydney with the Moyes family many months. I still regard the world record outback expedition to Hillston and Wilcannia with Tomas Suchanek and Bill Moyes as a turning point in my career, my flying confidence just sky rocketed after that!
I was told that Sydneysiders can watch the NBN news online, and I should be up just after 6pm NSW-time tonight for people from the central coast northwards. As soon as I find the news online, I will link it for you! My first interview on Australian TV, and I hope I could get the TV producers excited to come out and visit us in Forbes at the pre-worlds and worlds!

Abbey

2011-11-15T12:45:00.003+02:00

I loved that dog, Abbey was a very special family member of the Durands - I will miss her. My thoughts are with Judy, Big Jon, Gemma, Jonny and Josh.

Sandblasted

2011-11-13T22:24:00.004+02:00

Sometimes even low on the dunes at sealevel the wind is too strong for flying. When the seagulls barely move, you better look at windsurfing, kitesurfing or exploring different wing profiles with your jacket. We were sandblasted on the beach, I guess some sand will stay in my clothes for the rest of my journey.
After that really cold experience at the beach, it was fun to take a fire bath - Cris heated a fire under the big bath tub in their garden which heats the water while you soak in it. The views are great, it is a real treat to watch sunset over the mountains from a hot little pool.

Christchurch after the earthquake

2011-11-13T00:24:00.002+02:00

Cristchurch is still far away from a full recovery after the earthquakes hit. Lots of areas are closed, even if the houses look ok, people are not allowed to access their properties, and downtown you see a lot of cranes trying to hold up crooked, leaning high rise buildings.
The Christchurch Cathedral is not visible anymore, as you can´t access that area at all. In the meantime, containers were set up, glass fronts put into them, and shops and cafes are now set in containers. It´s just an interim solution, but it does look quite hip and trendy, just making the best out of that tough situation for all the shops.
I always considered New Zealand one of the safest havens to be, without nuclear power, not interesting enough in terms of natural resources for bigger countries to fight over, not a lot of people living there, it always seemed paradise. But one of the major falts of the earth crust runs along just under Christchurch. No tremors at all while I was there, and I hope that a desaster like this won´t happen here too soon again.
Cris and Tish own a property about 30 minutes north of Christchurch, and their house, road or land had not been affected at all by the quake luckily. They turned it into home for quite a lot of their Christchurch friends who had lost their houses and belongings after the catastrophe.

Christchurch

2011-11-12T03:29:00.002+02:00

After a great time of meeting my friends Phil, Annelies, James, Mary and their families up in Auckland, I flew to Christchurch to stay with Tascha, Cris and Tali. The flight was scenic and revealed some of the beauty of the southern NZ alps. As the Air NZ flight was pretty booked out, I sat in the middle seat in a row of three. As it turned out, I was sitting next to a Kiwi pilot who had just returned from a work trip to Los Angeles. Always interesting to hear about working conditions of other airlines. It is sad that Air New Zealand does not seem to have a lot of airline partners for their staff travel conditions. I can fly on a standby Air New Zealand ticket, but their staff can´t fly Lufthansa!
In Christchurch, Tish and Cris took me to the beach to see if we can fly the dunes, but the wind was not on, so we just had a nice little picknick together with their little son Tali. The beach is beautiful - it is spring at the moment, and the sand dunes are covered in beautiful flowers!

NZ specials

2011-11-04T08:33:00.002+02:00

Well the rainbow lorrikeets are actually Australian, but the Tuatara is an old kiwi favourite of mine. Needs one breath a minute, really cool guy that dragon!
Then of course the Kea, cheekiest bird alive! And could you spot the dog on the carpet? "Salty" is the Frankhams dog, and I wonder who was in the house first, the carpet or the dog?

Must be Halloween!

2011-10-31T20:27:00.003+02:00

Despite the Qantas strike, I managed to fly from Brisbane to Auckland with Emirates. The flight was packed, but the crew was great - Brazilians, a Paraguayan, a Korean and a Maltese were working in economy where I was sitting. I like these international crews.
It only took 2.30 hrs to fly over, then I went to my friends James´s place and arrived just when they were preparing the Halloween costumes for the kids. Archie the ghost was scary, specially since he did not quite always manage to walk around all tables... and Annabelle as a bat was great too!
Rain over here today, spring just started - many friends to visit and catch up with, it has been 4 years since I saw them. New Zealand is just too far away!

Jonny the Legend!

2011-10-29T11:59:00.002+03:00

Looks like Rohan won the day, but Jonny came in 3rd, and with 300 points ahead of the next pilot, he will clearly win this years Canungra Classic. What a legend! He really inspired me with his take off. Since he had his crucial ligement operated only 3 weeks ago, he hopped off one legged today from Tamborine mountain! In a place where other pilots have to do a really hard and long run today, he just graciously pretended to be a bird! Everybody was really impressed to see Jonny taking off like it was nothing special. My "young brother" has surely earned to win this comp.

More later, prize giving will start soon. I got 7 kms short of the 2nd turnpoint at Rathdowney and I think I didnt do too bad with that, might have made a few places back up. But the most important thing for me - I just had a fantastic time in the air, felt really good to be up with the eagles who joined my thermal every now and then! Canungra is a great place to fly, not just because of weather and flying conditions, it is mainly the great people of the club and of this comp who make it so special.

Big thanks to Tony and Michelle, best driver in the world. I had landed on a big field, but it was not easy to find the way to the property. And again, they did really well and got right to me on the paddock.

Canungra Day 7: cancelled

2011-10-28T06:55:00.006+03:00

So apparently the guys didn´t drink enough last night at the Red Faces to improve the weather enough for a taskable day. yet the acts were classic. I was in the jury and it was well worth it - Big Jon offered me a Canungra Classic Mug as a bribe! I love those trophies, I think Jonny´s mugs are the nicest and most useful trophies of all the comps Ive flown so far. It just adds to the value that they are handmade by one of the greatest guys Ive met in hang gliding so far - but you only get them if you make the top ten. For me out of reach this year, as I had to pause a few days and be careful about my knee. Yet I got one mug today and Im the happiest girl in the comp!
We were keen and set up our gliders at beechmont, but the drizzle kept moving in and cloud base was superlow. Davo was keen anyway and went for a flight to show us the conditions. He climbed up to probably 80 m above launch and maintained. After a while of watching the dark clouds moving past us, no sun to be seen anywhere, the day was canned.
A few guys flew and toplanded, others went to the bombout and had a long retrieve. It looks like it will be flyable again tomorrow, on the last day of this years Canungra Classic, so let´s hope for a last epic flight to finish the comp with style!

Canungra Day 6: cancelled

2011-10-27T09:43:00.002+03:00

Today we were again hang waiting on Beechmont launch. The wind was howling, seemed like 50 km/h in gusts. A task was set, but the safety committee decided to can the day. Only Jonny flew, and it did not look too inspiring. Quite turbulent air and really low cloud base. Not appealing if the first thing you have to do is dive over the back and cross a few no landing valleys...
Yesterday I had gone to the Gold Coast and saw a physiotherapist and chiropractor who did Atlas Therapy. Have a look at Dr Darren Scheuners
link, it really helped me immediately to straighten up my spine and my walk! It also seems to make my knee feel a lot better. I can warmly recommend that practice.
Tonight we will have the famous Red Faces Night in Canungra, and a lot of acts are lined up, as there will be a prize money of 750 $! Jonas and Wolfi are very keen to win it... I will have my camera ready ;)

Canungra Day 4: 88 km, day 5 cancelled

2011-10-26T05:48:00.004+03:00

88 km around 3 turnpoints yesterday with about 10 people in goal, Jonny won it with a big lead of 7 minutes on Rohan. Pilots experienced quite a lot of aggressive eagles in the area of the first turnpoint and had to fix their torn sails today. Both Jonas and his father Hagen had severe cuts in the upper surface of their gliders.
Wolfi Siess is here and really likes the fun atmosphere of the comp. Until yesterday, he only had an internet stick to call retrieve via skype, but it dit not have reception yesterday, so he ended up with the police - they were trying to help him get to his driver. He borrowed some money, called the driver, went to the pub, got some beer, was told by the police guys that he can´t drink it on the road, so he had it in their car ;) Now he´s got a phone card as well. Wolfi is ranked 10th at the moment.
Some Red Bull sampling girls were up on the mountain yesterday and provided the pilots with wings, thanks to Jonny.
Today we went up to Beechmont launch, but the sky is overcast, the prediction is for rain and storms, as a trough moves through today and tomorrow. The day was cancelled at 11am. Looks like we will get two more good days on Friday and Saturday though.
Jonny is still in first place, followed by Blenky and Dave May. Amazing result for Jonny who had a severe knee operation (replacement of his crucial legaments) just three weeks ago and is now flying with wheels on his speedbar! David Newton in 9th is the top ranked guy of the large group of Kiwis who compete in Canungra this year. Results here.

Canungra Day 3: Tambo - no, Flying Fox!

2011-10-24T11:14:00.005+03:00

Today we were asked to be on Beechmont launch at 8, but it was changed to briefing at the pub at 8.30 with short notice, as the wind direction has swung north. We went up to Tamborine launch, but it was not coming in. So we went to Flying Fox instead.
I decided not to fly, as the bomb out there is a quite dodgy slope landing, an d I want to take it easy over here. I survived a tick attack on launch - hey and those creepy blood sucking things are way larger than in Europe, they are called paralysis ticks because the venom can paralise the muscles... I freaked out when I felt something crawling up my neck and jumped and asked my team mate Tony if it was a tick - and so it was! He took it off, it had just started to bite so it was easy to get out, but I had goosebumps for about an hour... what do you do when they bite you and you are in the air? It is really a plague here at the moment. I guess Queenslanders are used to that problem, but for a naive European it is a horror to see a tick of 5 mm in diameter before it even started feeding on blood...
It was dogleg task with the goal at Boonah T along Rathdowney. Quite a few pilots had to land in the bombout, even top pilots like Scott Barrett and Adam Parer had to come up again for a relaunch.
Curt Warren was first in goal, followed by Nick Purcell (he is having his best comp up here ever as far as I remember, doing really well) and Glen McFarlane, but Rohan Holtkamp might have won the day, having had the fastest time to goal.
The days are really starting superearly here and we have long retrieves, because the seabreeze doesnt allow an out and return back to Canungra, so Im happy that I had a rest today and could catch up with photos and reports on the comp. It might stay north tomorrow, so if it is Flying Fox launch again, I will take another day off and just enjoy the wonderful climate and nature up here in Canungra, centre of the universe, according to Davo. "It´s pumpiiiiiing", as he puts it ;)
There is a great bunch of Kiwi pilots over here as well, and it is nice to see Hagen Brueggemann flying with his son Jonas, Matt Barlow is the top Kiwi pilot at the moment, just Conrad is missing. I´ve always admired John Smith´s flying skills - he looks healthier than ever! But he had to borrow a glider for the comp - he tried to ship his glider over to Oz, but very unfortunately it ended up on the ship that is stuck on a reef in front of the north island of NZ, creating an oil spill and catastrophe for the nature of that area... and apparently the container with his glider already went overboard. Lucky he hasn´t lost his humour and enjoys the flying anyway!
Results here!

Canungra Classic day 2

2011-10-23T23:46:00.003+03:00

Another early day at Beechmont, with a really early briefing and take off. Cloud base was higher than the day before, but it was difficult to get up fast, as there were long breaks between the cycles. When I finally started out on course, I was with about 5 other pilots and we managed to stay together nearly the whole course.
From the hills we went out to the flats up to Beaudesert, and just after the first turnpoint I got one of the real Aussie experiences - big bush fire, and the related really strong, smokey thermal. Smoked turkey ;)
Then back into the hills and towads the higher mountains along the border to NSW. Very scenic and great flying. About 20 guys made goal. Jonny, Dave May and Big Jon in the lead overall now.
I made it in as well and could move up 10 places in the overall rankings!

Canungra Classic Day 1: 92kms around

2011-10-22T12:45:00.003+03:00

Today we had a south easter and went up to Beechmont launch - and had briefing at 8.30 in the morning. Task Briefing and all!!! Probably the earliest competition in the world ;) The Queenslanders don´t have daylight saving, so the sun rises at around 5 am.
We had to go around 2 turnpoints and then back to goal in Laravale. 62 pilots are in the comp, and quite a few chose the alternate early launch window before ordered launch started. Not too many pilots climbed out and could take the first window - the clouds covered most of the valley and it even started raining a few times...
Anyway, eventually we got up and going. I managed to cross the flying fox and Canungra valley, but got low in the Kerry and landed. Yet I was happy to be up in the air again! It felt wonderful, and the Moyes Mojo prototype has a sweet handling, it was easy on take off and landing, so perfect for a first flight after a long break.
The hard training paid off now, I could do a strong, hard run on take off. Thanks to the guys from Sportschule Puch, you have done a great job looking after my recovery!
I had to walk out a fair way from where I landed to get to the road - it was a huge property. Luckily the farmer came over on a motorbike and took me up to the road. Very rarely Ive found such a helpful and friendly farmer like Rob - apparently he is used to people landing on his fields because they are so big and inviting. It is a dairy farm with a beautiful landscape that totally reminded me of the movie "Australia". Joel, a young local pilot, landed with me and he was stoked when I returned just half an hour later with our driver Michelle! She had already anticipated where I might be before the farmer gave her directions on the phone...
Our team mate Tony got to goal and was one of about 12 happy pilots there. First in was Jonny Durand, followed by Dave May and Big Jon.
It took quite a while to set up the scoring program, so no results are up yet, but I will post the link as soon as they are.
The farmer and also people on launch warned us about the tick plague here - they have paralysis ticks that put a venom into their victim that numbs the muscles... Im paranoied about these little critters anyway. So far I was lucky, but I will watch out for that stuff.
Tomorrow it looks like we will go up to Beechmont again, another really early day. It was quite humid today with a base of barely 1000 m, but the lift in the flatlands turned on well I heard.

Canungra Classic

2011-10-21T08:45:00.002+03:00

After a short work stop in Caracas, I took off for the big journey to Sydney. I arrived at the Moyes Factory in Botany early in the morning, catching up with Vicky and Steve, Jen and Matt. Then Vicky took me to the Central train station and I went north to Woy Woy to meet Glen McFarlane and drive up to Canungra with him the next day.
A long 9 hour trip later, and we arrived at the Gold Coast. Feels like coming home in a way. Today at take off, I met many good old friends - Both Jonny´s were there, Curt and Scott, Kathryn and Curtis, Matt and even Wolfi from Tyrol! A great bunch of pilots, so it is going to be a good comp this year! The weather looks promising. Im off to registration now, tomorrow will be the first comp day. more pics later!

October 19

2011-10-19T01:50:00.004+03:00

"Come, gentle night.
Come loving, black-browed night.
Give me my Romeo.
And when he shall die,
Take him, and cut him out
in little stars,
And he will make the face
of heaven so fine
That all the world
will be in love
with night
And pay no worship
to the garish sun."

You touched many people´s lives, Nick, and we will never forget you.

Abu Dhabi

2011-10-18T07:28:00.005+03:00

For the first time, I flew into Abu Dhabi in the morning and I could see the vast desert. For some reason I always think of Hannes Arch when Im here - he had a nice "Abu Dhabi" logo on his Red Bull Air Race plane ;)
While on other flights you hear babies screaming or dogs barking, on this Airbus 330 we kept hearing the car alarm of a Ferrari in the cargo department. A flight attendant kept turning it off with a key, but it started over and over again.
The new airport here is huge, just imagine you land at gate A42 in Frankfurt and you have to transfer to B30... it is a good workout of more than a mile and might end in airport jogging. I had enough time to catch the connection to Sydney, but unlike before, now the stand-bys have to sit and wait in front of the transfer desk. No cafe, no water. At least a few seats and internet for the waiting time. It used to be a really nice mosque like waiting lounge in the old airport here.
At least they show a movie on the overhead monitor. An old film where a passenger jet got in trouble with a bomb on board... they have a good humour here, I hope my fellow travellers can also appreciate that ;)
More when I get to the Moyes factory in Botany in about 18 hours. Long day.

On the road: South!

2011-10-17T21:20:00.003+03:00

Australia? - Yeah!

On the way to Canungra, centre of the universe (in Davo´s words), with a brief stop at Moyes HQ in Sydney to check out new gear and gadgets. The Classic starts on Saturday, I can´t wait to fly with my Aussie and Kiwi friends up there, it has been a while.

And even if I get stranded in Abu Dhabi or Dubai - at least it will be warmer than in Munich ;)

World Record Choir

2011-10-16T16:35:00.003+03:00

Yesterday I went to see a concert at the Olympic hall of Munich. Mano Ezoh, a Nigerian man who lives and works in Germany, always had the dream to create the world´s largest gospel choir in the world.
When he had been for a radio interview at Antenne Bayern, he met Florian Weiss who was fascinated by Mano´s energy and the idea, so Antenne Bayern kept assisting this world record trial and Florian Weiss was presenting the event last night.
Mano had been working hard the past four years, training many choirs in Germany and Austria, he saved every cent he could afford to make his dream come true.
He rented the Olympic hall of Munich, invited all participants of all his choirs and sold tickets for the audience. He needed at least 1000 people in the choir, and you can see about half of them in the background on my photo, all dressed in white. They were checked by 13 "officials" if they were all singing for at least 5 minutes - the count was for 1134 people, so Mano set the new world record and will be mentioned in the next Guinness book.
It was a fun event and it shows that if you work hard to achieve your dreams and believe that they can come true, one day they will!

Hyderabad, one last time!

2011-10-15T18:21:00.003+03:00

Before Lufthansa stops the Hyderabad-Destination (India), I had to catch a flight there one last time. You find the spiciest Samosas there, but also very friendly, welcoming people with a great humour. Again, the flight was already a joy to work on, because the Hyderabadis like to laugh and are very laid back.
I went to see the Fortress Golconda, it was a nice work out to walk up the granite mountain to the very top. A great view of the city and the fortress was the reward.
But my highlight there were the cute little chip munks who ran around the fortress. They reminded me of driving up Chelan Butte in Lake Chelan.
The spicy curries were very tasty and I hope we return to fly to Hyderabad soon!

Sebastian - World Champion!

2011-10-09T12:45:00.003+03:00

He did it again, together with the Red Bull F1 team! With his 3rd place in Suzuka, Japan, today, Sebastian Vettel is already now, 5 races before the end of the season, the old and new and youngest ever F1 double world champion of all times. And to me, the most likable one too! I hope this time I can make it to the party at Hangar 7 in Salzburg...
All the best of course also to the Suzuka winner, Jenson Button.
Enjoy your great success, Sebastian, I am proud to be a small part of the big family of extraordinary Red Bull athletes! Also big congrats to all the people who helped in the "background" - Ive met quite a few of them in Sao Paulo, and it was obvious immediately that there is not just dedication and knowledge, but a lot of heart, curiosity and really good vibes "behind the scenes"!

Dear Steve Jobs...

2011-10-06T16:22:00.002+03:00

... thank you for having contributed some of the greatest toys of my generation! I fell in love years ago with my first Mac and always stayed truthful, having convinced many friends of the advantages and the mere beauty of the Apple system. A sad day to hear about your death. To me, you made earth a better place with your inventions!

Meeting Benjamin

2011-09-27T19:14:00.009+03:00

Sometimes things fall into place. It is very gratifying if the usual unfair chaos of the world is broken by a sensible line of actions, and suddenly life makes sense. I would like to share the unusual and highly improbable story of Benjamin and our trip to Ghana with you.

It all started when my friend Florian stumbled across a petition for help on the internet. After some research, he found that nothing at all had happened so far to improve the situation of Benjamin, a 35 year old painter from Accra who fell down from a table, hit the edge and broke some of his lower vertebrae. Not a problem in Germany to get an operation that fixes the problem and gets you back on your feet. But for a man from what I would call a slum in Africa, it usually means extreme suffering and eventually death, by infection, pain or starvation.

Benjamin was pushed out of his room - yes, even in slums the tiny huts are rented, and the landlady knew of course that she would not get any money from the man who could not work anymore. So he spent weeks in front of that place, lying on the ground, on a wooden bench, feeling excruciating pain. The reverend of the local church took pity and allowed Benjamin to lie beside the church under a roof, feeding him every now and then with left overs from his or others family. You can´t expect donations or help in a place where everybody fights for food and survival daily.

At some stage, a foreign doctor took pity on this torn man and took an xray, seeing that an operation was possible, but costs about 7000 €. He put the story on the internet where Florian found it. Florian contacted the doctor and also the Madamfo Ghana association in order to find out how to get help to Benjamin. At this time, Benjamin had already survived in this desperate state for over two years! With the help of some initial money and the Madamfo Ghana workers, Benjamin was getting pain killers and also was looked after with food and drink by the sisters of a local monastery.

Yet it was a long way to raise attention and money. Luckily, as a radio and TV presenter, Florian knew how to connect people and find a way to push for help. Dirk Walter wanted to help and set up a charity soccer game with the young girls of their soccer club - it took place during the time of the women´s world soccer cup. So Florian just contacted many German celebrities to play soccer against the girls and raise money to finance Benjamins operation and his rehabilitation. He also asked me to play on the team, but I was going to the hang gliding worlds. At least I thought so - a wrong step at a wrong time forced me to stay grounded for a while, so I could join in and help, at least as a referee on crutches at the side of the soccer field ;)

The outcome was overwhelming - and Benjamin got his operation, got back up to his feet, gets a new chance. But we wanted to know more, make a personal contact, go to Africa and meet Benjamin. I was lucky - Accra was my first work flight again after having been unable to fly for two months! I was able to take Florian and Tom with me at low cost - there is no point in wanting to help if you need just as much means to travel to see Benjamin as half of the income of donations was, so this way we could afford to meet Benjamin at a reasonable cost for us.

We were excited when Michael and Viktor from Madamfo Ghana came to pick us up and go to see Benjamin. I prepared the guys that it can be a while, even though the distance was barely 20 km, it will take hours and hours on end in the crazy traffic of Accra, where you just spend a lot of time waiting and waiting, breathing fumes from other cars, or the strange smells of decay, or - just sweat. It is almost always 35 C in the shade and nearly 100 % humidity, and of course the tiny old taxis have no AC. Yet I was happy that it didn´t start raining, as the cars run on very old tires that look like slicks to me, and if the red raw roads turn into red muddy rivers, it would take even longer for the jam to move anywhere.

It was not boring at all, as there was plenty of entertainment for us to see - constantly we were offered all kinds of things by people walking through the waiting cars, not just cassava chips, nuts and sweets, but also undies, sunglasses, tyres, water, juice and softdrinks, all kinds of car gear, old fish, collecting cards of some sort, ... most of the stuff carried on the head by elegant women moving through the lines of cars without hesitation. What a colourful mess! I wouldn´t have been surprised to also see fridges offered here, smoothly balanced by the strong women in their colourful traditional dresses. The nicest part - we always got a warm smile even though we did not really make use of the car shopping channel.

It felt like 3 hours later when we finally arrived at Benjamins place, located on the first floor in a decent, secure place. Not many possessions. A bed, very few clothes, a book and his medicine. In the middle of it Benjamin upright, his eyes wide open - his suprise when we finally meet is undescribable. These 3 guys from Germany just went to Accra to see him, to get to know him and spend two days of his life with him. To explain where all the help came from - that many people were involved and donated money on facebook, at the soccer game and privately. That a huge group of young girls stood up to help Benjamin. It was quite an impressive event, I wrote about it on my blog here.

Benjamin hugged us, took our hands and thanked us for all the help that finally eased his incredible suffering. He is skinny, with very thin but strongly built arms. Soon we know why - for years now when he had to move, he went on all fours on the ground, crawling like a lizard. The pain to stand up and walk was too big. He showed us how he moved along, and we just stared at each other, wondering if we only had the strength to survive a single month like that.

Benjamin is wearing a double corset and opens it to show us the neatly healed long scar. His x-rays show quite an amount of metal to hold his vertebrae in place. Bettina Landgrafe from Madamfo Ghana made sure that he was well looked after, got a good treatment and enough food and water. And she supported him, calmed him down whenever she was there - the personal contact made the greatest impression on Benjamin, to feel that somebody in the world really cares about him. He kept showing us the photo book that Dirk had sent to him so he could understand a little better what was going on. He pointed us out on every photo he could find and smiled, holding our hands or embracing us again and again, as if he wanted to check that we were real.

He keeps saying that God sent Florian as his angel to help him survive, and soon I was happy that Flo and Benjamin were in the centre of attention, as my eyes got pretty wet... Benjamin was so open, so emotional, so welcoming and - happy. "Look I walk again!" He kept saying, and then I told him that also I had to train hard to start walking and working again to bring the guys here. We were jumping and dancing with joy!

We went out for lunch with our little group and I was already looking forward to eat Fufu, a sticky dumpling made from Yam and Banana, and a vegetable soup. The people from Ghana really know how to cook great soups- it was a delicious meal. But Benjamin could hardly eat his plate full of rice and chicken. He was so excited, overwhelmed to sit at a table full of beautiful food with people from the other side of the world who had just decided to save his life. He was also very worried - would we just go away, now that the operation was successful?

We asserted that we would keep looking after him, help him to get fit, find a job to support himself. He didn´t look too sure about that.

Then we took off to see his old home area and where the accident happened. It was great to see Benjamin walk through the paths where he had spent more than two years lying down without much hope to ever recover. All the people who saw him and us came towards us and greeted Benjamin happily, with great surprise in their faces. And Benjamin´s smile grew again, now that he could walk again and show everybody that God looks after him. We met the reverend who had looked after Benjamin´s survival, but he also said how hard it is for everybody to survive in the camp of liberian refugees and poor people from the countryside.

I was amazed how strong he already is - he insisted on carrying our big camera bag for us and looked after it really well. He so much wants to work and give something back to us, very difficult to convince him that there is a time to take and a time to receive, and he first has to heal completely before he should give. And by the way, he already gave us much more than he can realize.

When we took him home, we promised to be back the next day. Another 2 hours later, we got back to our hotel, still being overwhelmed by so many impressions, emotions and thoughts.

The next day, Michael and Viktor took Benjamin to our hotel at Labadi Beach so we could spend a maximum time there with Benjamin and did not get stuck in traffic before I had to work on the flight back. Again we went for lunch together, asking more questions about his life and expectations. Suddenly Michael from Madamfo Ghana got up and delivered a speech that made a deep impact on us. He said that he only expected us for a brief visit of Benjamin and thought we then would be off for more travelling in Ghana. When he saw that this whole trip was only about Benjamin, he was absolutely impressed and felt honoured. He said by helping Benjamin, we help his "brother" and the whole people of Ghana and he feels very close to Germany and Germans, even more than before (Bettina Landgrafe is working like a local Mother Theresa for them). Michaels words were very kind and full of hope to make this world a better place when people care about each other. He loved the way we all interacted with each other, with so much respect, love and - fun! Benjamin is really funny and cracked one joke after the other when he finally managed to stop worrying. We were laughing our heads off. It felt good when Benjamin called me "sister" and called Flo and Tom "brothers".

Benjamin intends to open a shop once he is strong enough, to sell goods and support himself. He does not have wife or children, his old parents far away in the countryside are his only relatives. He said he would also like to spread the word of God in church, and every now and then he gave us an impressive sermon about how God and Jesus just performed this miracle to help him survive.

It was sad when we had to leave in the evening, but we could reassure Benjamin that this would not be our last meeting. We would find a way to come back, or - even better - get him over to Germany to play soccer with the girls who played only for him! He beamed when we mentioned that.

Full of impressions, more questions, but also some answers we went back home. Difficult to put these extremes into words.

Meeting Benjamin

2011-09-27T13:01:00.003+03:00

We had an amazing time in Accra when we met Benjamin - he can walk again. And even jump. And live.

more pics and a full report soon

Going South

2011-09-24T14:39:00.002+03:00

When the temperatures fall and autumn arrives, it is not just time for the birds to prepare for the great journey to the warmer hemisphere. Also all kinds of pilots tend to pack their gear to find better flying conditions. When I saw this t-shirt, I thought it is perfect for us, just describes our way of life :)
I was lucky to get a flight to Ghana. It is hot and sunny in Accra, and there is a lot to tell and show you, as I had been preparing a help project. It all seems to work out perfect, more details when Im home in a few hours.

Tonight on Radio Bremen TV

2011-09-14T16:26:00.002+03:00

Tonight at 18.45 I will be in an interview on Radio Bremen TV, the show is called "Ansichten". We talked about hang gliding and the fascination of flying. They also show some flying footage. If the show gets online, I will link it for you.

ZDF Volle Kanne Video

2011-09-08T12:30:00.004+03:00

Yesterday on ZDF, one of the main German television channels, in the show "Volle Kanne" there was a nice video of Regina and me hang gliding together at Tegelberg. It is in German and you can watch it here. Good advertisement for our sport!
Meanwhile Primoz took over the lead in the pre Euros in Turkey. They have another 3 possible task days for the others to catch up with Primoz.

Scores at pre Euro´s are up!

2011-09-07T10:05:00.003+03:00

So finally we can see how the guys are flying in Kayseri, the scores are here! Thanks Jochen for posting the link. Suan is first, followed by Jochen, Primoz and Pedro. Looks like only 11 pilots flew all the tasks of the comp, which is a really poor participation. Yet this season was packed with the Worlds and other big comps during the season, and soon will continue with Forbes in Australia as the pre worlds, I guess that is why most pilots were shying away from the long and complicated trip to Anatolia. Sad for the organizers, they seem to do a good job on the local PR, getting a big audience and TV up for the event. Lucky for us that Jamie and Jochen do a good report for the rest of us pilots who could not get there for whatever reason - thanks guys!

Inversion in Turkey

2011-09-06T08:06:00.004+03:00

Looks like the spectators outnumber the pilots at the pre Euros in Kayseri, Turkey. I could not find any result list yet, but it seems like only Primoz, Jochen, Suan and Pedro are the non-Turkish pilots in this competition. On Jochen´s and Jamie´s blogs you will find more pictures and descriptions of the adventures.
They are fighting with a strong inversion layer, low base and a lot of wind. With only 300 m of height from launch to the main landing field, it seems easy to bomb out. It is ok for a small field of not many pilots, like they are now, but I hope conditions will improve for a probably bigger comp next year.
Suan won the first day with a distance of 48 km (out of an 80 km task), and Primoz won day 2, a 32 km task, with Suan being the only other pilot in goal.
The competition finishes Saturday when the guys will start again on their 3 day trip back to Austria by train. Until then, Im looking forward to seeing more pictures taken by Jamie and Jochen!

Next: Pre-Euros in Kayseri

2011-09-01T13:13:00.003+03:00

After Gary Wirdnam won the British Open, Luis Rizo became the new French Champion at St. André, Primoz Gricar won the Slovenian Open and Alexander Barvinskiy won the Russian Nationals in Askarov - with Julia Kucherenko becoming 2nd overall! - now a few guys are on their way to Turkey to compete at the pre Europeans. It is quite an ordeal for most pilots to get their equipment there, I guess that is why there are not many entries at all. Seems like they will be barely 20 pilots...
Flying into Istanbul with a glider is quite difficult, as there are not many airlines willing to take our luggage with them, and even if so, it gets hugely expensive. I just know from Lufthansa flights that the Airbus 320 operates flights to Turkey, and at the station from Frankfurt or Munich they don´t have much time to get complicated load into their belly.
So Primoz, Suan and Jochen took their own car and chose the long trip by car train from Villach to Turkey. Arriving after a few days, they will still have to drive 1000km in the country. Without local knowledge nor language it will be interesting to hear about their experiences on whether or not the road gps works in the Turkish countryside as well ;)

Slovenian Nationals

2011-08-20T18:48:00.003+03:00

Today they got some extra "wings" on launch at the Slovenian Open! Primoz is in the lead of the comp and it looks like he could become Slovenian Champion. After having finished 3rd at the Cucco Worlds and having been 1st in the world ranking for quite a while now, he proves his great flying skills.
Tomorrow the French and British nationals will start in St. Andre, first time ever that these nationals have been combined. International friendship, I like this concept! Maybe we can combine the German and Swiss Nationals next year too (I just always fall for their wonderful Swiss German language...)
Meanwhile Davis is raving about the great conditions in Big Spring - about the wild life he is absolutely right! I love those funny prairy dogs and went to the airfield really early every morning just to watch those cute animals. Sure, when you are landing you have to watch out for their holes, but I think we never had the Big Spring airfield as a goal during the worlds, we always kept our drivers entertained ;) At the moment, Zippy is in the lead, followed by Davis and Glen Volk.

Pre-European Championships Kayseri

2011-08-18T10:25:00.003+03:00

The pre-European Championships will be on from Sept. 4-10th in Kayseri, Turkey, and only 20 pilots have entered the competition so far! You can inscribe here! I wish I could fly there, but I have to join a rehab-training then ("and I said - yes, yes, yes...!"). Looks like it might get the best flying in the whole Euro season this year, with lots of sun and really high cloud base.
Im posting this to help the Turkish organizers who are really keen on promoting this spot for hang gliding. Hey, accomodation in appartements for FREE! Please register if you intend to go, so they have a rough count on participation.
The place is quite rural, so bring your Turkish-English dictionary (yes there is an Iphone-app!) ;) I bet people will be really curious and helpful, as this area knows paragliding but not so much hang gliding yet.

Dutch an Austrian Open

2011-08-16T08:32:00.006+03:00

After four days of flying at the Dutch Open in Tolmin, Italian pilot Paolo Rosichetti won the comp, with Joost Eertmann as the new Dutch champion on 5th place and Christa Aichner as the 1st woman. RESULTS
At Diedamskopf, they could only fly 2 rounds, and local hero Walter Mayer is the new Austrian champion, Monique Werner was the 1st ranked woman of the comp. RESULTS
The Slovenian Open, also at Tolmin, started yesterday, but they could not fly a task yet, they will probably start today.
Thanks to Jamie for the nice photos!

Live on air on Bayern 3!

2011-08-13T23:17:00.002+03:00

It is a lot of fun to talk live on air at Bayern 3 about the fascination of flying! Radio is great! Time is running, but it is a while until midnight, until the end of the show...

Overnight stay in cable car at Tegelberg!

2011-08-13T08:55:00.003+03:00

A tandem paraglider pilot got stuck in the cables of the Tegelberg cablecar yesterday and the whole cable car stopped immediately. Three helicopters were first getting the paraglider and his passenger out of the cables, then they winched 30 passengers of one cable car 50 m down to the ground.
The wind picked up a lot, so it was not possible to also free the 19 passengers of the other cable car cabin. They had to stay in the cabin in the air over night and were rescued this morning. See the video report in the German news here.
Luckily the paraglider pilot, his passenger and also all the people who had been stuck in the cable car overnight are fine!

Dutch Open Slovenia

2011-08-12T12:33:00.003+03:00

After two tasks at the Dutch Open in Tolmin, Carl Wallbank (GB) is in the lead, first woman is Christa Aichner from our national team, and Jamie is third (on the photo you see her landing). It looks like they will fly another two comp days today and tomorrow. Results are here.
The weather situation is more difficult on the northern side of the Alps - tomorrow the Austrian Nationals at Diedamskopf should start, and with a bit of luck they can fly two days out of three.

Dutch Open next week

2011-08-07T19:46:00.003+03:00

The next two comps happen in Tolmin - most guys will race from Laragne at the Belgian Open over to Slovenia. Carl Wallbank won the comp, Jochen Zeischka is old and new Belgian Champion after 6 racing days.
In Berlin, after only two tasks Jochen Zeyher won the rigid class, Konrad Lüders is new East German Champion and Bernd Otterpohl is the new North German Champion.
After the Dutch Open, also the Slovenians will organize their Nationals at the same scenic place in Tolmin with the famous Soca trout and a beautiful, icecold river next to the camp and landing site.
On the way back west, people could stop by at the Austrian Nationals at Diedamskopf and then continue down to St André for the British Nationals. Not exactly ecologically friendly organized this year... let´s hope the weather turns on again for the rest of the season, as we already see lots of rain and floods around the central alps.

German Flatlands and Belgian Nationals Laragne

2011-08-04T11:28:00.005+03:00

At the moment they seem to have really great flying weather in Laragne at the Belgian Nationals - 4 tasks out of 4 days! Have a look at Jochen Zeischka´s blog - he is currently leading the Belgium rankings and hopes to become Belgian Champion for the 2nd time! And he is also doing a great job of posting about the flights, with help of Jamie´s wonderful photos really worth following!
At the same time, they flew 2 days so far (112 km and 94 km) in Altes Lager at the German Flatlands, and it looks like they might get another task on Friday, the last comp day. Jochen Zeyher (Atos) is currently in the lead, and Bernd Otterpohl is currently the first flex wing pilot. Also guns like Tim Grabowski, Toni Raumauf (Austria) and Lukas Bader are competing!

With style!

2011-08-02T23:28:00.003+03:00

Back from the worlds at Monte Cucco, finally our team leader Regina can go flying again at her home. She just tried her stylish new harness - it looks hot!

World Championships: Last Day - Cucco North - cancelled!

2011-07-29T10:40:00.004+03:00

Luckily the pilots are going up the hill one more time on the last day of the comp - take off Cucco North, as the wind turned north again. Im glad it is not the strenuous hike up to Tre Pizzi! The weather forecasts predict overdevelopment for today, and there is a lot of moisture in the air, I hope they have enough time for a short task today.
11.50: The task is set - 90 km around 4 turn points with goal in Esanatoglia, take off starts at 12.15. I hope the live tracking is more reliable today!

13.30 The start had been delayed several times, but when finally the first pilots got airborne, the turbulence was obvious. The safety director decided to cancel the day and even free flights are not allowed today!
The new World Champion is the old World Champion - congratulations to Alex Ploner! And the Italian Team wins the team trophy, with Christian Ciech in second place overall, Primoz (SLO) is third.
With Andre Djamarani on 7th and Gerd Dönhuber on 10th, the individual result of the Germans have rarely been better. The team finished 9th.

Chrigel Maurer wins Red Bull Xalps!

2011-07-28T14:42:00.007+03:00

Swiss paraglider pilot Chrigel Maurer rocks! Also on the his last day of the Red Bull Xalps race, he performs an incredible flight and completes the last passage into Monaco like a bird, toplands on Peille take off and shares the joy of the flight down to goal with his supporter of the 12 days, Thomas Theurillat. For sure he gave the spectators one of his superb acro shows in the end of this exhausting trip across the whole range of the European alps.
Many high profile pilots of hang gliding and paragliding who do a lot of cross country flying have been following this race fascinated by Chrigels skill to find the best possible route of the day - and to even fly in what we "average" people consider as completely unflyable conditions! Chapeau, Monsieur Maurer, for winning your 2nd Xalps title in a row! In terms of talent, skill, yet modesty you are in one league with the greatest guys of aviation history I know, Chris Müller and Guido Gehrmann.
And thanks for the great photos, diary notes and "air messages" as a tribute to your followers - highly appreciated! I wonder if "pedestrians" have a clue of what this accomplishment means, of crossing the highest peaks of Europe just with solar and wind power, working with the surprises of nature by using just a piece of fabric and some thin ropes... Mate, you are legend!
Two of my friends are still fighting to get to Monaco, as the race only finishes two days after the first pilot arrives - Michael Gebert (Germany) and Heli Eichholzer (Austria) still have a chance to get there. Maybe Chrigel could help them?

Day 10: cancelled...

2011-07-28T12:19:00.003+03:00

Rain and storms again in Italy, the sky is grey, and the pilots who travelled thousands of kilometers, prepared months and years to finally compete at a World Championship will be disappointed. And Flavio, the organizer, will have a hard time too, as I know how much he loves to give "his" pilots the best possible comp. "His" pilots, that is all the pilots in the world. At least they are luckier than Tegelberg, as they already have a valid comp!
On the photo, you see Andre Djamarani, top ranked German pilot on 7th place at the moment, Gerd Dönhuber is on 10th. Tomorrow will be the last chance to race again and climb up a few steps more of the ladder. I keep my fingers crossed!

Cucco Day 9: South take off

2011-07-27T10:26:00.004+03:00

They are heading up to take off for a briefing at 11.30, but the weather forecast predicts another frontal system with rain and storms pretty soon, there might not be enough time to fly a task today.
Results after yesterdays flight: 1. Alex, 2. Christian, 3. Primoz! Japanese pilot Koji Daimon is ranked 4th, he showed a really strong performance in Italy. Elio (not a surprise) in 5ht and Manfre (big surprise - nearly 200 points behind Alex!) in 6ht. Andre is 7th and Gerd in 10th place. First time I ever remember that there are more Germans in the top 10 than Austrians and French!
Teams: 1. Italy, 2. France, 3. Austria. Team Germany ranks 9th, but with less than 100 points to the British on 4th place, a lot can change if there is another task or two!
11.55: The day is cancelled as the front and rain is approaching too fast.

Worlds Day 8: Cucco South!

2011-07-26T10:23:00.013+03:00

Sunshine - finally! They pilots are hyped up and rigging their gliders on Cucco South take off. The sky is blue now, but rain and storms are possible today, so it might be an early, short racing task. As it doesn´t look like too many more good days, tension is in the air...
Briefing is on right now, and you can see the clouds growing behind them, that´s why they will probably task to the west!
114 kms around 4 turnpoints today, including Gubbio, but never moving too far away from goal at Costacciaro, to stay safe in case of overdeveloptment. Thanks for the fast updates on the Cucco Blog and great photos, the organizers are doing an incredible job to let the rest of the world participate!
Startgates open at 13.20 and 13.40 - keep your fingers crossed that the clouds stay fly-friendly today! And the window is open...
News: The Italian Twins win the day - Alex Ploner and Christian Ciech first in goal!!! Primoz and Manfred follow closely. Gerd, Andre, Christian and Roland not far behind! Many people will make it today, big gaggles approaching goal. Watch the Real Time Results Download on the official Cucco Comp homepage for more details!
Also it looks like Chrigel could win his secon Red Bull Xalps competition tomorrow - he is already at 98 km out of Monaco and could be arriving tomorrow during the day! Anybody flying to Nice with me tomorrow? I need a driver to Monaco... I would love to chear Chrigel for his incredible performance!

Cucco Worlds: Cancelled again!

2011-07-25T10:49:00.007+03:00

News from take off: Cucco is still in the clouds and light rain, the task is cancelled, and pilots slowly going bananas.

The teams are on the way up to Cucco North take off - much closer than Tre Pizzi, and less stressful! The mountain is still in the clouds, but it is clearing now and they hope for the best for a good task today. Wind is light, and with so many pilots it will be a difficult task to climb out and wait for the start gate...
More news once they have a task set!
Thanks to Ecki for this great picture of Andre Djamarani!

Celeb-Soccer for Benjamin!

2011-07-24T19:19:00.012+03:00

Another day cancelled at the Cucco Worlds, but tomorrow they will try a flight from Tre Pizzi!
Meanwhile I had a great day yesterday when I was invited by Florian Weiß from Antenne Bayern to help raise money for Benjamin. This poor guy from Ghana had broken a lower back vertebrae which can be easily operated - if you have the money. If not, you suffer terrible pain and can´t walk, can´t work, can´t do anything. Luckily a Cuban doc posted Benjamin´s fate on the internet, Florian found out and asked how he could help.
They got connected to "Madamfo Ghana" (Madamfo means friend in Ghana) run by Bettina Landgrafe who got Benjamin to Accra and made sure he was looked after until the money was there to operate him. About 7000 € were needed.
Benjamin is a great fan of German Soccer (and there are many great players from Ghana in our German Bundesliga), so Florian had the idea to organize a Charity Soccer Game to raise money for the operation and the rehab therapy. He called celebreties and the coolest girl soccer team of Höhenkirchen together, and yesterday it happened!
Florian Weiß, Tanja Wörle (a pro player from Bavaria Munich!) and I were referees, famous German music manager Thomas Stein went around to collect money from the spectators, comedians Atze Schröder and Josef Nullinger were commenting the game, and some of the celeb team players were soccer legend Andy Brehme, Se bastian Höffner (RTL), Marcus Fahn (Bayern 3), Indra (Antenne Bayern) and handsome Bochum goal keeper Philipp Heerwagen .
As you see on the photo, Philipp is way taller than me, and about twice as tall as the girls they played against. Yet the girls worked great together, they won 6:1! It was fantastic to watch them interacting like a school of fish or birds, always turning into the same direction at the same time!
After the game, everybody was invited to an exclusive concert of Jamaram, a band from Munich - man I wish I could dance again, I loved their music!
After that, an auction with unique items did a good job to raise even more - Xavier Naidoos original headphones got 130 €, but the helmet of the German Women´s skiing team with all their autographs got 500 €!!! Altogether they collected 5000 € and Atze Schröder doubled it! 10.000 € for Benjamin!
And the great news is that Benjamin had been operated and it looks good for his future, now he needs physiotherapy and soon he will walk and smile again. Be sure that I will request a flight to Accra to meet Benjamin and let him know how the little German soccer girls fought for him!
Im also very interested in Bettina Landgrafes work - I usually don´t like to donate money and prefer to give my help directly to the people in India or Africa or Brazil, as Im afraid that too much drops away in burocracy. I had the great opportunity to meet Atze Schröder before the game and he had been in Ghana many times and supports Bettina´s Madamfo Ghana. He beamed when he told us how Bettina stops to help old and sick people, how she is recognized and appreciated even in the outback of Ghana, and how she always finds the cheapest way for herself (which is quite adventurous sometimes, sounds like me!) to have the maximum ability to help the people in need.

Too bad I cannot work right now and have to be patient, but I swear one of my first flights has to take me to Ghana again, country of great people and delicious Fufu!
There is a great article about yesterday´s game in the Münchner Merkur, unfortunately just in German ;)

Cucco Day 5: Rain, day cancelled

2011-07-23T20:12:00.005+03:00

No task today, time to analyse yesterdays race. Congrats to Primoz and the Italian twins (Alex & Chris), but also to Gerd Doenhuber for 3rd place - a great start into his first World Championships, and he has a really good and strong mindset, very good physical condition to stay relaxed and concentrated after such a good day. And congrats to the Italian team for 1st place in the ranking and 4 pilots in goal!
Then Andre finished 7th of the day, also an amazing result. But many pilots landed early yesterday, amongst them Big Spring world champ Attila Bertok. As it doesnt look a lot like many comp days next week, the chances to catch up on the top guys is small. Some mishaps shuffled quite a lot of places in the team rankings. The Swiss guys did well and would have been 3rd or 4th, but Gägu (Franz Herrmann) touched Perugia airspace and got 0 points as a penalty - and he had been in goal, that hurts! Also Mexican pilot Rodrigo de Obeso was zeroed and had made goal. Markus from our team also had that problem, at least he didnt loose that many points.
US pilot Jeff O´Brian toplanded after his vario had frozen, got a spare, and lost the spare in the air - all the bad luck on one day. OB is a great photographer and I really like his style of writing, have a look at his blog entries!
The Australian team did well, just that Jonny Durand, like me, makes a comp more interesting by not starting as the leader on the first day, and then catching up ;)
Seems like just the leading Italian, French and Austrians never make mistakes. Even though the Austrians are missing Gerolf Heinrichs, one of their strongest pilots, they still rank 3rd with the team...
Well it all seems mixed up just like the weather in Italy these days. I hope for the teams and organizers that they see at least a few of those epic days that we had at the Women´s Worlds and at the pre Worlds last year, just racing and enjoying!

Red Bull Xalps: Chrigel´s Time Out

2011-07-23T10:26:00.002+03:00

Yesterday at the Xalps, top ranked pilot Chrigel Maurer flew a breathtaking 400 km, making it all the way into the Zermatt valley, where they have to pass the Matterhorn as the last but one turnpoint. He raced away nearly 200 km from the next pilots, Toma Coconea and German competitor, Michael Gebert (come on, Michael, fly far today and you will catch up to Chrigel)! Unfortunately, he touched a restricted area and got a time penalty of one day... time for the other guys to catch up.
I know most of the areas they fly past, and it is just amazing to see follow the pilots´tracks online. I really want to share Hugh Millers´job, chasing the guys in a helicopter and briefly interviewing them, showing the spectators the most spectacular scenery! Thanks to Hannes Arch who invented this formate of comp many years ago - it was a handful to shape it like it is today, to make it understandable and available to the rest of the world. Also thanks to Red Bull for believing in such "crazy" adventures. This is the best race in the world!

Cucco Worlds: Monte Subasio!

2011-07-22T10:44:00.009+03:00

Primoz Gricar is the first in goal, Alex Ploner 2nd! And it also looks great for my team mates Gerd Dönhuber who finished the task together with Alex, and Andre Djamarani, who is the 5th pilot across the goal line! They had a speed radius of 1 km around the goal, so the final verification of the times will be read out of the GPSs tonight.
Just too bad that Christian, Roland and Markus didn´t quite make it to goal today, but I saw quite a lot of other top guys on the ground before goal as well, like Gordon Rigg and Blay Olmos. Must have been a tricky day.
A 121km task around 4 turnpoints to the south at Spoleto is set, with goal at Subasio landing field. Start window will open at 3pm. Watch the Live Tracking!
As the wind is still strong on Cucco, the organizers move the comp to Monte Subasio take off today. This launch is facing the west and is out of the compression of the Cucco mountain ridge, so hopefully it is less wind up there . It is above the cute village of Assisi. In the late afternoon, the sun turns the whole city and the famous Basilica San Francesco into a magical orange light, when you are flying in that scenery, it feels unreal!
After a big earthquake about 15 years ago, the Basilica and it´s famous paintings have been restored, and it is worth seeing the Giotto frescoes and other paintings by Cimabue and Cavallini inside.
I will report later about the decision of a possible task.

Cucco Worlds: They finally start - almost!

2011-07-21T11:04:00.007+03:00

News from Take off Cucco South: The day is cancelled, still too windy and getting windier in the course of the day. Forecast for tomorrow looks very promising though.

Today the weather looks better, less wind, more sun, so the pilots head off to Cucco south launch where they will have a briefing at 12. Once they have a task and start, you can follow the life tracking (with a 15 minute delay) here! Should be pretty spectacular, this is the first time ever that all pilots of the world championships will have a tracking device with them.
More news as soon as the task is published.
Also keep following the Xalps pilots - today there should be some spectacular flying in the Dolomites! Mike Küng unfortunately had to quit today, he is unwell and suspects it could be pneumonia... German pilot Michael Gebert is flying, getting high above Tre Cime, in a very good position to catch up with the top 5 guys today!

Worlds Day 2: another rest day

2011-07-20T10:43:00.006+03:00

Another blown out day at Cucco, so maybe most pilots who want to fly are heading for Castelluccio today, as they had really good flights yesterday. For tomorrow the forecast is much better, so the first round of the Cucco Worlds will definitely start on Thursday. Great photos of yesterdays flying on dhv.de.
It is raining north of the main ridge of the alps, so guys at the Xalps have a hard time with a lot of walking in the rain or the clouds and not too much flying. Chrigel is already in the lead, as he had managed to fly a great distance yesterday. He crossed from Matrei valley of East Tyrol straight line down to Sillian and across the Drau Valley into Italy and the Dolomites! He is a real wizard when it comes to flying in tricky conditions in the high mountains. I wish Chrigel would hang glide more, we could all learn a lot from him...
The second ranked is Romanian Toma Coconea, the strongest runner and climber in the field who has chosen very individual routes in the past. Also Mike Küng flew his way into the top 10 today. Hugh Miller is doing a great job with the online video presentation of the Xalps!